Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARTER of Louisiana. Mr. Chair, I thank Ranking Member Scott for his time and leadership in this matter.

I rise today in opposition to this bill. Monday night, the Rules Committee considered my amendment, amendment No. 16, to H.R. 1147, which would have provided an alternative, a healthy alternative to our young people, people that cannot digest milk.

I heard my colleagues on the other side of the aisle suggest that this was a choice. Well, if there were a choice, then why not add soy as a choice. Soy gives the equivalent of the nutritional values as whole milk, but it does not have the negative impact that whole milk has on a large swath of people in our community.

I will tell you those numbers. Ninety-five percent of Native Americans have lactose intolerance. Ninety percent of African Americans are lactose intolerant. Sixty-five percent of Latino Americans are, in fact, lactose intolerant. Asian Americans, 90 percent. These are real numbers. This is not about taste. This is not about profit. This is not about bottom line. This is not about a powerful lobby. This is about the safety, nutrition, and well-being of our young people.

We cannot ignore the impact that ingesting or attempting to digest things that your body cannot and what impact it has on one's ability to concentrate or do well in the classroom.

My colleagues and I formed a diverse group, represented by chairs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Asian Pacific American Caucus, and a vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus respectively. We all firmly believe that the full House should be allowed to debate this important measure, making sure that we were given the opportunity on the floor to debate this amendment. I believe if given the opportunity to be heard, even the other side could have and would have been able to support.

What is most perplexing is how this amendment aligns with the purpose of the underlying bill, to expand choice and to deliver healthy beverages to the school counter. Our amendment is based on the text of my bill, H.R. 1619, the ADD SOY Act. It amends the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Program to strike the onerous ``milk note'' requirement and to stipulate that the USDA reimburse school districts to make a plant-based dietary alternative that is nutritionally equivalent to cow's milk available in school. Yes, a choice, a real choice.

When Congress enacted the milk mandate 80 years ago, the United States was less diverse, and we did not understand the exact science surrounding lactose intolerance. Between 70 to 90 percent of African Americans today are lactose intolerant. Ninety percent of Asians, 95 percent of Native Americans, and 65 percent of Latinos are, in fact, lactose intolerant.

The National Institutes of Health reports the majority of all people have reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy, and it adds that it is also very common in people from West Africa, Arab, Jewish, Greek, and Italian descent.

Currently, if a student wants a nutritionally equivalent alternative to milk, they need to get a doctor's note or parent's note to obtain a plant-based beverage. Oftentimes, parents are working two jobs. Oftentimes, unfortunately, parents don't pay as much attention or are as in tune and have an opportunity to get to the school or even have healthcare to go to a doctor to get a note. Should that child still be punished and forced to drink something that their body simply cannot digest?

How do you concentrate in the classroom when you are drinking and attempting to digest something that your body cannot? What happens to that child when they belly up to the desk and have to study or pay attention but their body is telling them that they have eaten something that does not agree with them? It causes a problem. It causes ridicule. It causes the ability or inability to concentrate and perform at their highest level. Because of this high barrier to entry, kids often don't. Many skip school or don't do well in school as an alternative.

If 75 percent of African Americans are lactose intolerant, which is true in my family, why should three-quarters of kids have to get a note. It is not a medical disability to be African American. It is not a medical disability to be Vietnamese American. It is not a disability to be Native American. It is not a disability to be Latino.

Lactose intolerance is genetic. This isn't complicated. Kids should be given a healthy fluid beverage option that doesn't make them sick. Our amendment would have provided a sensible solution. Allow the USDA to reimburse school districts for soy milk, which so far is the only plant-based milk that has been recognized under the latest formulation of the 2020 American Dietary Guidelines to be healthy and nutritionally equivalent to cow's milk.

Moreover, there is a primary reason that more than half of all milk given to children is thrown into a cafeteria trash can unused, carton after carton after carton of discarded cartons of milk that have never been opened. At some point kids realize it isn't good for them and they don't drink it. Whatever nutritional value you thought you were affording by giving milk doesn't happen if young people can't consume or digest it.

Many kids don't want milk because it makes them sick. According to the USDA, 29 percent of cartons of cow milk served in our schools are thrown into the garbage unopened. This comes out to be somewhere around $300 million in annual waste of taxpayer funds for milk cartons. It is clear that not only is it a food waste issue but a failure on the NSLP to supply food to kids that are consumed and meet their daily nutritional requirement. The present rate of food waste and taxpayer losses is not acceptable.

Mr. Chair, I ask whether my Republican colleagues think it is a good policy. Is that good stewardship of our tax dollars? Is that delivering good health outcomes for all kids?

If they believe it is, then they should agree and recognize that adding a true alternative is a good thing. I remind my colleagues that it is not a medical condition to be Black, Latino, Asian, Jewish, or other ethnicities.

This is an issue of racial equity and inclusion, as well as tightening government spending and waste. It is both a matter of squandering tax dollars and a matter of fairness. The kids who have the least and who have the most difficulty raising their voices are being denied a food staple that they simply cannot stand.

We must fix this. Let us strive to do better for the next generation and equip them with the nutritional sustenance at the lunch counter that can give them an opportunity to not just survive but thrive.

Mr. Chair, I implore you to think about the children. Don't think about the profits. Don't think about the lobby. Don't think about the efforts of a winner or loser. Let's put children first.

Let's make sure that we, as a Congress, recognize the value of fighting for those who have not been given the opportunity to fight for themselves.

Add soy. Create true alternatives. Do not force people to digest things that their bodies simply cannot.

Mr. Chair, it is for this reason and this reason solely that I cannot support this measure without true alternatives.

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